Can Favorite Music Heal?

Founder

James Schaller, CMP

Date

Jan 03, 2019

Categories

Uncategorized

Content

Founder

What’s your favorite music? Is it a genre, classical, jazz, urban, soul, spiritual, rock or pop? Or is your favorite music more defined as by artist, or album or even a song?

For me I tend to change favorite genres over time. Right now my favorites are trans-underground EDM laced with ethnic rhythms and instruments from across the middle east. Also known as ‘that weird music that dad listens to.’

Can your favorite music heal?

What is healing? The root word of healing is an Anglo-Saxon word HAL which means to be ‘made whole’. To be made whole can be a physical, emotional or spiritual experience. So in one sense yes, if your favorite music makes you happy, energized, peaceful, or pleasantly sleepy, some part of you is coming into balance and yes, experiencing healing.

I once played bedside for an elderly patient who had most of her family gathered together as she was in her very last days. While I’d been playing music designed to reduce pain and anxiety there was a request for a song.

As the family sang the woman asked to be helped to her feet. It was literally her ‘last stand’ upon this planet in her lifetime. Was there healing? You bet! There was a tremendous sense of unity in the family and the woman felt loved, surrounded by care, inspired to rise once more and surrender to the inevitable.

A familiar song is not what I typically play for patients for a variety of reasons described in my online course The Healer’s Visit. But in this situation that favorite song brought healing.

If you find pleasure as you listen to your favorite music, then you’re gaining physiological benefits. If you need deep rest to recover from surgery, illness, a bad cold or flu, then there are other choices for music that may bring you deep rest and speed your recovery.

Now I’d like to hear from you. What’s your favorite type of music? Why do you like this music? Is it because you like how it makes you feel? Or maybe how you think? Have you always enjoyed the same type of music? Or do your preferences change over time?

Please leave a comment here at JamesSchaller.com and share with our community.

If you’d like more real-deal, practical resources about sound, music and healing, then sign up for updates at JamesSchaller.com.

In my emails I often send specials like free music, tips on how to create healing environments and referrals to essential resources for healing music, inspiration, and how to rest and re-set.

James Schaller, CMP is a clinical musician and consultant who trains caregivers how to use therapeutic music, and consults with healthcare facilities to create soundscapes that benefit patients and staff.

James Schaller, CMP

Founder

James Schaller, CMP is a clinical musician, composer, music producer, and communications consultant. James is trained to deliver prescriptive music at the bedside in medical situations and has designed collaborative work communications for broadcast networks and TV stations, university sports arenas and stadiums, Broadway theaters and shows, and the occasional nuclear power plant.
James trains and consults with medical teams and caregiver organizations on how to create and manage soundscapes for patients, residents and staff, how to introduce and use therapeutic music within facilities, and best practices to reduce noise.